PSV Match, Landsend Match Lake, 02-11-14

A match at Landsend today with another 13 of PSV's finest, though Adam Caswell wasn't amongst them, nor Mark and Ryan Radford. Saturday's match weights were ok with plenty of 60lb+ bags and the silvers won with around 20lb.

I arrived in plenty of time for the draw, but there were a good few present. So after a little chat and banter the draw was made, I fancied pretty much any peg from 13 down to 20, 15 or 16 preferred, though I didn't really fancy a corner peg as they tend to be shit or bust when I am on them!!
The golden peg was picked, peg 18, but after last week the pot was barely into double figures.
I waited to towards the end of the draw before picking my peg for the day, this turned out to be peg 1......not an ideal peg, well I didn't fancy it. Yes it has the long end bank on the left hand side of the swim, at trimmed down tree to my right and the point of the island at around 14.5m. But I'd rather have had a mid-way up peg where 'silvers' are usually present in better numbers.



Landsend Match Lake, peg 1.

The water levels are well down with at most 3.5ft anywhere in front of me. I spent too long getting ready for the 10am all-in, in fact it was 10:25 before I put any bait in and was ready to fish!! By this point we'd also had a massive rain shower and everything was rather wet!! My enthusiasm again waned, perhaps I shouldn't watch Thinking Tackle....makes me want to get my carp rods out, ho hum.
Also By this time a good few carp had been caught by all the pegs to my right, I had Lionel Legge for company on peg 3, opposite me I had Si Belcham in the other corner, he had Lee Waller next to him.

Rigs were a pellet shallow rig for along the end bank which would double up for open water stalking if needed. A rig for silvers at 2+2, but this never gave me a fish, neither did the rig under the tree to my right and I didn't have any fish come from off the island. I did have a rig for banded pellet at depth just off the shelf at 14.5m along the end bank, I think I had 4 foul hooked fish lost off this, possibly as fish headed up the shelf without any feeding intent (my excuses).
In fact my match was rather quiet, not helped by the fact I could see Lionel and Brian Shanks (p5) catching well enough for most of the day.

My 1st carp came from the area at the bottom of the ledge along the end bank, I caught this around 2hrs into the match and was my only mouth hooked fish from there,  I had already tried for silvers but couldn't get a bite.
I was still suffering from line bites, foul hooked carp, leaves, poor sunlight and a few more leaves plus the odd tangle or 10, I really was fishing like a tw*t!!
So by now we were at the halfway stage of the match and I was on 1 skimmer and 1 carp!!

The second half of my match was a little more productive, suffering less foulers and generally putting a few fish in the net, all bar one came from the end bank. 1 fish I stalked at top-kit distance when I spied a 6lber sucking on a bunch of leaves!! Meanwhile, Brian, Lionel and I think, Ron Hardiman, were doing well and all looked like having at least 80lb, Brian possibly nearer 100lb.
I could see the fish mooching along the bank and resorted to fishing 2+2 distance along the bank where the odd fish would drop down to feed, but it was too shallow to get a run of carp going.
The odd look on the deeper rigs didn't produce anything.

By the all out I was on about 8 carp and 1 skimmer, so possibly around 35lb.
I began packing away as I had the scales duty and waited an age for Mr Burgess, who incidentally drew peg 19, the peg he said he wanted on Saturday night on Facebook!!

I weighed first, my skimmer weighed 2lb and my carp boosted my weight to 46lb 6oz.
Lionel said he had 70lb, I reckoned on 80lb, he had 84lb on the button.
Brian Shanks on peg 5 totted up a decent 105lb 15oz.
Next up was Ron Hardiman, he put 83lb 15oz on the board.
We were soon at John Bradford, silver fish extraordinaire, was on peg 13 and gave the silvers weight of 17lb 7oz, he also put back no less that 14 carp during the day.
Peg 15, Darren North, on the peg I wanted, moved into third with 91lb+.
However, next to Darren was the in form Chris Gay, he gave the board 130lb+ using his normal groundbait and dead maggots, fishing worms over the top, down the margins. A good weight, well done.
Alan Healey on peg 18, golden peg, put a great net of silvers on the board, moving The Gimp into 2nd silvers place.....22lb 14oz was Alan's silvers weight.

The scales continued down the bank and there wasn't much to report regarding the overall positions, though Lee Waller on peg 22 did have 12lb+ of silvers.

Result:
1. Chris Gay (16) .... 130-6
2. Brian Shanks (5) ... 105-15
3. Darren North (15) ... 91-9
4. Lionel Legge (3) ... 84-0
5. Ron Hardiman (7) ... 83-15

Silvers:
1. Alan Healey (18) ... 22-14
2. John Bradford (13) ... 17-7
3. Lee Waller (22) ... 12-4

I am not too sure how well I did, but we had a couple DNW's and a few fished for silvers.
I couldn't seem to get the fish feeding in any sense of the meaning, just picking up the odd one in the 2nd half of the 6hrs, me starting late and it seemed like one of the days which I would rather of not had. The silvers were not present in any numbers for me, which I had initially wanted to fish for.
Maybe I should have tried meat, but I didn't take any for the 1st time in over a year!!

Anyways, at the moment, next week,  we are on Trinity Wildmarsh, though I believe Mr Match Secretary is trying to move it to Woodlands.

Until then, have fun.

Lee

PSV Match, Viaduct Campbell, 26/10/14

Today is a very short blog from me.

A lack of enthusiasm was obvious when I got out of bed, I actually went to bed at 8:15 last night, which probably didn't help. Anyways I chugged the 'long way' to Viaduct this morning as the usual 7-bends road is closed for a few weeks. A 40mph dawdle saw me arrive in plenty of time.

I unloaded the car, chatted to a few guys and waited for the draw. Golden peg was drawn as p123, top silvers peg, most commented that the money would roll over. I fancied pegs 123 to 128 or maybe 118 or 119.
I drew, yet again for the umpteenth time, peg 130. My enthusiasm didn't grow as the peg isn't the best, especially when 129 is in, that peg tends to stop the fish drifting down to pegs 130, 131 and 132. The same happens to peg 111 if 112 is in along with 129. Though peg 110 in the corner always has resident fish along the brambles and is good for a few carp.

I set up a lead rod, a shallow (unused) rig, a rig for the margins left and right (maggot/meat over dead mags and groundbait), a rig for 2+2 with meat over hemp and a 13m line rig with banded 8mm the choice of bait.
For company I had Will Dearlove, who'd got his better half's permission to fish. Down on p132 was Adam Caswell, and he didn't need to borrow anything this week.

I started on the lead, not an indication after 40 minutes. Onto the long pole line. 1 roach in the next 3/4s of an hour. Onto my meat line, a tench and a carp, 2 lost carp and a couple small skimmers followed over the next hour.
Elsewhere Will was happily landing a third of what he hooked and was doing well, Mark Radford opposite me on peg 111 was doing as poor as me, as was Adam down on p132.
Chris Szakcas on peg 110 was picking up the odd fish as was Steve Wynne on peg 112.
Further up the lake it seemed a different story with plenty of fish being caught, especially your Ryan Radford on golden peg 123, he'd gone into the pools too.....!!

That pretty much sums up my match, 1 more carp and a couple skimmers over the next 2hrs saw me call it a day an hour before the end, so at 3pm I left early (I was gonna pack up at 12:30, but stuck to it). I only had around 20 bites, landing 2 carp, 4 skimmers upto 3lb, a tench and maybe 10 rudd/roach. I lost 2 carp and a skimmer.
Will Dearlove was doing very well on p129, that was pretty much it down this end of the lake, though Chris on p110 was getting odd fish, but not getting loads. Mark, opposite wasn't getting much, or Adam neither. The windier pegs further up the lake were the pegs to be.

So I arrived home to watch the United v Chelsea put on an entertaining game.

Results: (pinched from the PSV facebook page)
1. Ryan Radford (123)* ... 161-0
2. Brian Shanks (115) ... 134-12
3. Will Dearlove (129) ... 125-8
4. Steve Burgess (125) ... 113-13
5. Ron Hardiman (116) ... 106-8

Silvers:
...
1. Lee Waller (127) ... 18-2
2. Colin Butler (128) ... 15-2

*golden peg

Next up for me, I think, is a match down at Landsend with the PSV crew again.

Until then, take care.

Lee.

ps...a boxless pic of my usual Campbell peg.

Campbell peg 130, Viaduct.